Vulnerability, Joy, and Possibility

Good Morning, Students…
I was inspired by your reactions to Durka’s final two chapters on vulnerability and joy/possibility. Your blogs contained “nuggets” of insight that I have recorded below. I look forward to further discussion on these topics with you this afternoon.
Gini

I like the two aspects of the teaching journey—inner journey and outer journey—explained by Gloria Durka. It is the delicate and healthy balance between these two journeys that makes a teacher who he or she is. (Vinod)

Importance of nurturing yourself before you can nurture your students. (Maureen)

This is one of the few professions, which… teachers really learn by doing on their own. (Steve)

Prayer always helps me to go back to the center of my soul and find peace and strength to reaffirm who I am and what is my most important goal in Catholic education. (Susana)

Whenever I had any kind of problem [in my classroom], I always examined myself and tried to see what was wrong. I always found the answer because I was ready to change myself. (Bipin)

I had to smile when I read the sentence that “teaching is unpredictable from hour to hour and minute to minute”. This is where the adventure of our vocation comes in as well as exposing our vulnerability. (Angie)

I also have discovered my vulnerabilities. My kids have let me know those. I remember when a girl left me a note on the top of my desk telling me what she didn’t like about something that I did. I was so moved by this note. (Eloisa)

…in the poem by T.S. Eliot, I had two lines that stuck with me: “You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance, in order to possess what you do not possess”. (Lindy)

Durka says that we are co-creators, and we know that co-creating does not all depend upon us. We share the load with others…But more importantly, we are God’s hands, voice and presence in the world. (Jackie)